Spit Shines

We're going to take a look at hair today in the Moviehouse. Not short back and sides with a laser-line part over the temple. That's too ordinary.

Even these Afros, bowl cuts, pompadours, mohawks, mullets, and spikes, unique yet ultimately plebeian and pedestrian, pale in comparison to the singular coiffured accoutrement we praise in this missive. Behold the spit curl!

From the royal courts of Renaissance Europe to the stages of the Folies Bergère in 1920s Paris to the skies over Metropolis in the 1940s to the rock 'n' roll clubs of the 1950s, the kiss curl was a lock of hair curling over the face and usually plastered down with saliva (hence its unrefined appellation "spit curl"), or, more typically, soap or lotion.


From Curls to Plaits to Curls

Before getting down to specifics, let's comb our way through curls in the big picture. The classic gods and goddesses of ancient Greece, as well as the rulers, statespersons, and philosophers, were typically depicted with beautiful curly locks, an image celebrated as the height of beauty, represented in this Hellenistic statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, emerging from her bath (pictured below).

Sculptors of ancient Rome borrowed from the Greeks (as Romans often did in all aspects of art and culture) and continued the idealization of curly hair as the epitome of glamour, seen here in the bust of a young Roman woman from the imperial Flavian dynasty (pictured below).

After the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the Gothic - as in the Germanic tribes Visigoths and Ostrogoths, not the henna-haired, black-clad subculture of the 1980s - principles of the Dark Ages, along with the severity of early Christian rule, contrived to make curls unpopular, if not outright improper. Genetics, of course, continued to supply natural curls, but women flattened them in plaits and kept them out of sight, as illustrated in the Medieval tapestry below.

Not until the advent of the European Renaissance in the 14th century did curls re-emerge into fashion with the rebirth of pagan ideals of beauty. The Renaissance had its origins in Italy, which is where we see the blossoming of ringlets and curls. In the 15th century paintings of friars Fra Lippo Lippi and Fra Angelico, the curl was sanctioned to adorn the heads of angels - "a good example to mere mortals, surely," in the words of Every Woman's Encyclopedia.

Curls galore frame this angelic face in a detail
from Fra Lippo Lippi's "Coronation of the Virgin."

"Thus set free," according to Every Woman's Encyclopedia, "the curl rolled over the land and was on its way gradually all over Europe." It wasn't the reign of Elizabeth I in the 16th century that the fashion, in imitation of French ringlets, prevailed in England. Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth's cousin and ill-fated royal rival, likewise adopted the trend.

This  1588 portrait of Elizabeth I is attributed to George Gower,
the royally appointed "Serjeant Painter" to the Queen. 

Mary, Queen of Scots was accused of plotting to assassinate her first
cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I. At her beheading in 1587,
she wore an auburn wig over her short, gray hair. Mary's death
mask, with wig, is on display at her onetime home
in Jedburgh, Scotland.

Henrietta Maria (pictured below), daughter of King Henry IV of France and queen consort of King Charles I of England, brought the latest French fashion in coiffure to the English court in 1625, including flattened curls on the brow and temples which the French called "accroche coeur," or the "kiss curl."

Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King John IV of Portugal who married Charles II, son of Charles I, in 1662, thereby becoming Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, carried on the fashion of kiss curls (pictured below).

It was said that Catherine and Charles II introduced the custom
of drinking tea to the British court, something which was already
common among Portuguese nobility.

Women of the court of "The Merry Monarch" (Charles II) wore their curls shortened and bunched. At this time it was the male who sported long, wavy locks of hair. And so women's curls, owing to male competition, became more extravagant.

By the late 17th century, fashion called for fringes of hair set off by kiss curls, sometimes augmented with fake hair, called "fripons" and "guigne-gallant," or "hook hearts," as pictured here, circa 1695.

Solely on the empirical evidence of contemporary portraits, it could almost be said of Napoleon Bonaparte, French statesman, military leader, and self-coronated emperor of the early 19th century, that he sported a male version of the kiss curl over his forehead.

However, in historical hindsight, Napoleon's crown of thin, wispy hair and tousled forelocks might be construed as nothing more than a hasty comb-over of the 1800s. Steadfastly, the distinctive cowlick became a standard in cinematic portrayals of "The Little Corporal," from Charles Boyer in 1937's "Conquest" to Marlon Brando in 1954's "Désirée" to Herbert Lom in 1956's "War & Peace" to Rod Steiger in 1970's "Waterloo" to Armand Assante in the 1987 miniseries "Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story."

That little forehead paste-over was brandished by acclaimed British actor Ian Holm in three portrayals of Bonaparte: in the 1974 British TV miniseries "Napoleon and Love," in writer-director Terry Gilliam's 1981 comedic fantasy "Time Bandits," and in the historically speculative "The Emperor's New Clothes" (2001), co-written and directed by "Thor: The Dark World" filmmaker Alan Taylor.

No less than 27 years separate that willful tuft of hair atop Ian Holm's
forehead in "Napoleon and Love" and "The Emperor's New Clothes."

The Spit Curl Comes of Age in the 20th Century

The kiss curl was made popular again in the 1920s by St. Louis-born Josephine Baker, who achieved global fame in her adopted country of France as a dancer, singer, and actress. Spotted during her legendary 1925 debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysée, she became an instant success for her erotic dancing while appearing nearly nude on the stage.

Josephine Baker: "I wasn't really naked.
I simply didn't have any clothes on."

She would soon be recognized as the most celebrated headliner in revues at Paris' Folies Bergère. Offstage, Baker aided the French Resistance during World War II. She was awarded the "Croix de Guerre" and was named Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. She is the only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral.

Baker's short hair, straightened and smoothed, with Medusa-like curls framing her face, became the much-envied style every woman wanted to recreate for herself, illustrated by the kiss curls in these vintage snapshots from the 1920s..

Before she portrayed the wise and sympathetic housewife Milly Stephenson in the multi-Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives" in 1946...

...and before she partnered with William Powell as the sophisticated, boozy, witty crime solvers Nora and Nick Charles in the "Thin Man" series in the 1930s...

...Myrna Loy, who trained as a dancer, toiled through the 1920s in uncredited roles in a number of silent motion pictures. She - and her kiss curls - also posed for this glamour portrait in 1931...

Kiss curls aplenty framed the cherubic face of animation's Betty Boop, created at Fleischer Studios as a parody of a vivacious, coquettish Jazz Age flapper, complete with her own snazzy catchphrase: "Boop-oop-a-doop!" Actually, in the initial cartoons, starting in 1930, she appeared as a humanized French poodle, complete with floppy ears and a black canine nose.

Before and after: Betty Boop makes her debut in the summer of 1930
in "Dizzy Dishes." Betty appears in her fully human form for the first
time in December of 1931 in "Dizzy Red Riding Hood."

As opposed to the childlike charm of California rival Walt Disney's animation, the New York-based cartoons of brothers Max and David Fleischer were popular because of their sophisticated, sometimes cynical, sense of humor, as well as their innocently erotic flavor. Adults could enjoy the cartoons on a different level than the kids in the audience, while Betty was such an appealing character that the risqué antics and dialogue never seemed offensive.

The uninhibited animators at Fleischer Studios often had fun at
Betty's expense, such as this see-through gag in 1934's "Red Hot
Mamma," which was banned in Great Britain, not for its sexy
content but because it depicted Hell humorously, which was
deemed blasphemous.

The moralistic watchdogs of the Legion of Decency and the Motion Picture Production Code in the mid-1930s forced Betty to cover up her cleavage and gartered thighs as she engaged in more domestic-minded storylines (pictured below).

Toned down and noticeably wholesome, with humor aimed at a more juvenile audience, the Betty Boop cartoons rapidly declined in popularity until the last half dozen were released in 1939.

The male kiss curl, perhaps overlooking the aforementioned Napoleon Bonaparte's errant triangle of disheveled hair over his foreboding brow, is evidenced in this 19th-century daguerrotype.

Which brings to question, was Elvis' oft-unkempt forelock an intentional kiss curl or just a haphazard array of devil-may-care follicles?

There was no mistaking the spit curl sported by a contemporary of Elvis', early 1950s rock 'n' roll pioneer Bill Haley. Formed in 1952, Bill Haley & His Comets cranked out the million-selling hits "Rock Around the Clock," "See You Later, Alligator," and, among others, "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Throughout his 34-year career, Haley sold over 25 million records worldwide.

In 1929, when he was four years old, Haley underwent inner ear mastoid surgery which accidentally severed an optic nerve, leaving him blind in his left eye for the rest of his life. He allegedly adopted the trademark spit curl above his good eye early in his career to draw attention from his sightless eye.

The dozen-member group Sha Na Na, which debuted in 1969 at the height of the hippie era, became popular for their retro-repertoire of classic '50s rock 'n' roll oldies. Their half-hour set at the Woodstock music festival in 1969, preceding Jimi Hendrix (who, just two years earlier, found himself as the opening act for The Monkees' concert tour), attracted national attention and led to the flood of manufactured nostalgia marked by the musical "Grease," George Lucas' coming-of-age comedy "American Graffiti," and the TV series "Happy Days."

Sha Na Na billed themselves as coming from "the streets of New York" and dressed up in gold lamé, leather jackets, and sleeveless muscle shirts, sporting slick pompadours, duck tails, and the inevitable spit curls (pictured below).

Andy Devine, a crackerjack character actor with a high-pitched, raspy, crackling voice was best known as Cookie, the comic relief sidekick of singing cowboy Roy Rogers in several feature films and as Jingles, Guy Madison's comic relief sidekick on the TV series "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok." He was also memorable as Buck, the reluctant stage driver in 1939's "Stagecoach," with John Wayne and as the tale-spinning Somerset Frisby, abducted by gullible aliens on a tongue-in-cheek episode of "The Twilight Zone." Early in his career, Andy's promotional 8x10 glossy head shots featured the actor's toothy smile and one doozy of a spit curl.

By the time Andy approached 60, his bushy brows took over what
was once his pride and joy, and his eye-catching spit curl was a mere
memory, as seen here in his appearance as one of the many second
bananas in the cast of 1963's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

The Spit Curl and the Krypton Orphan

From the beginning - April 18, 1938 to be precise - artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel intended their creation, Kal-El (Superman to Earthlings), to sport a dashing kiss curl on his forehead.

Superman is ready for his close-up from the cover of
September 1940's Superman #6 comic book.

Kirk Alyn, a former chorus boy in Broadway plays, became the first actor to portray the Man of Steel in films as the star of the 15-part motion picture serial "Superman" in 1948, followed by the serialized sequel "Atom Man vs. Superman" in 1950. Alyn never received screen credit and was billed simply as "Superman," although promotional posters listed his name. Because of production costs and the fact that special-effects wires were visible, Superman's flight scenes were animated by Howard Smith, who had worked on Disney's "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," and "Dumbo."

Kirk Alyn shares a scene with Noel Neill as Lois Lane, a role the
actress would reprise in the TV series starring George Reeves.

In the ballyhooed spectacle of 1978's "Superman," starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, and Marlon Brando, Kirk Alyn and his onetime costar Noel Neill had cameo roles as the parents of Lois Lane (played as an adult by Margot Kidder). Watching the original theatrical release, if you blinked you would have missed their appearance on a train passing through Smallville as a teenaged Clark Kent (played by actor Jeff East) hoofs it past the locomotive, but the scene was restored in subsequent, extended home video releases.

Noel Neill, Kathy Paynter (as young Lois Lane), and Kirk Alyn
grab their fleeting moment of screen time in 1978's "Superman."

In 1941, Paramount Studios lured siblings Max and David Fleischer, the animators of Fleischer Studios responsible for the aforementioned "Betty Boop" cartoons, not to mention the "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons of the 1930s, to create a series of animated "Superman" shorts. At first hesitant due to commitments to feature films, the Fleischers succumbed to more financial backing than they had ever received before.

Inspired by the comic pages, the Fleischer Studios'
"Superman" displayed the distinctive kiss curl.

Only the first nine of 17 shorts were created by Max and David Fleischer's studios. Fleischer Studios was dissolved in 1942, and the reorganized Famous Studios produced the final eight animated shorts. The voice of Superman / Clark Kent was provided by early TV game show host Bud Collyer, of TV's "To Tell the Truth" renown.

The syndicated television series "The Adventures of Superman," which aired in first-run syndication instead of a network from 1952 to 1958, featured George Reeves as Superman / Clark Kent. Reeves had been a contract player for Warner Bros. after filming his first role, as one of the Tarleton twins wooing Scarlett O'Hara at the beginning of "Gone with the Wind." Following World War II, he eventually returned to Hollywood, where, among other roles, he was cast in a small part as a U.S. Army sergeant in "From Here to Eternity," which won eight Academy Awards, before landing the recurring role of Superman.

Forgoing the anticipated spit curl, George Reeves opted for a more
subdued widow's peak.

Phyllis Coates, a former vaudeville dancer-comedian and variety program showgirl, portrayed Lois Lane during the first season of "The Adventures of Superman," succeeded by Noel Neill for the remaining five seasons. On the first season finale of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" in 1994, Phyllis Coates appeared as the mother of Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher).

Wait a minute: We're not supposed to figure out that Clark Kent is
really Superman? Just a pair of horn-rimmed glasses? That's it?
At least the other guys would hide the distinctive spit curl.

When the son-and-father production team of Ilya and Alexander Salkind, along with Pierre Spengler - who had recently produced the hit 1970s reboot of "The Three Musketeers" and its back-to-back sequel, "The Four Musketeers" - decided to launch a spectacular star-studded, state-of-the-art (at least for its time) motion picture based on "Superman" in 1977, they initially sought an A-list actor for the leading role. Robert Redford, having recently co-starred with Dustin Hoffman in the political blockbuster "All the President's Men," was lured with a hefty paycheck but decided he was too well-known for the part. When Paul Newman was reportedly offered his choice of roles as Superman, supervillain Lex Luthor, or Superman's father, Jor-El, for $4 million, he turned down the offer. Burt Reynolds, coming off of "Smokey and the Bandit," likewise turned down the part. Sylvester Stallone voiced an interest, but nothing ever came of it.

Olympic champion Bruce Jenner, long before becoming Caitlyn Jenner, auditioned for the title role. Patrick Wayne, who had just starred in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger," was cast but begged off when his father, John Wayne, was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned for the role but was ignored, as was, of all contenders, Neil Diamond. Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Charles Bronson, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Nick Nolte, James Brolin, Lyle Waggoner from "The Carol Burnett Show," Muhammad Ali, even Christopher Walken were all considered. James Caan said he was offered the part but turned it down because, "I just couldn't wear that suit."

Over 200 unknowns auditioned for the starring role. Even co-producer Ilya Salkind's wife's dentist received a screen test. Christopher Reeve had his screen test in February 1977. Reeve, who had studied alongside future friend Robin Williams at the Julliard School, had played a character on the daytime drama "Love of Life" for a couple of years before making his screen debut in a small role as a naval officer in the 1978 submarine disaster film "Gray Lady Down," starring the king of disaster flicks, Charlton Heston.

Having landed the title role, Reeve participated in a crash physical training course under the supervision of David Prowse, a 6'-6" bodybuilder and character actor, best known for portraying the guy inside the Darth Vader costume in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Prowse himself had expressed interest in the role of Superman. (Prowse also auditioned for the role of Non, General Zod's hulking, dimwitted cohort-in-crime.) Reeve bulked up from 188 to 212 pounds.

Christopher Reeve, spit curl firmly in place, went on to play the
hero from Krypton in three more movies, the final outing being
"Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" in 1987.

Reeve was paid $250,000 for both "Superman" and "Superman II," compared to Gene Hackman's $2 million for playing Lex Luthor and over $3.5 million for Marlon Brando as Superman's biological father, Jor-El.

Like father, like son. Marlon Brando, as Jor-El, hoists infant Kal-El,
soon-to-be-Superman. Well, that explains the spit curl.

The teenaged Clark Kent in "Superman" was portrayed by Jeff East, who had played Huckleberry Finn in the early 1970s musical films "Tom Sawyer" (with TV's "Family Affair" costar Johnny Whitaker as Tom and Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher) and "Huckleberry Finn."

With lookalike spit curl intact, Jeff East was surprised to learn that
his dialogue had been over-dubbed by Christopher Reeve in post-
production. "It was done without my permission," East later recalled,
"but it turned out to be okay...but it caused tension between us. We
resolved our issues with each other years later."

In May of 1995, Christopher Reeve was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition, leaving him a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair and requiring portable oxygen for the rest of his life. His final acting role came in a pair of second and third season episodes of the television series "Smallville" in 2003 and 2004 as Dr. Virgil Swann (pictured below), a scientist who educates Clark Kent (Tom Welling) about his home planet of Krypton. Reeve succumbed to sepsis in October 2004, six months after his second appearance on the series.

In 1988, marking the 50th anniversary of the Man of Steel, CBS ran a single season of the Saturday morning animated series "Superman" (pictured below). Prolific voice actor Beau Weaver performed as Superman / Clark Kent.

That same year, Alexander and Ilya Salkind developed the syndicated series "Superboy," depicting the adolescent adventures of the superhero. The show aired for four seasons until 1988. Among the list of directors was former child actor Jackie Cooper, who, as an adult performer, played Daily Planet editor Perry White in the Christopher Reeve "Superman" films.

Series producers were not fond of actor John Haymes Newton's
performance as Superboy. After a publicized DUI arrest and a
demand for a 20% raise, he was not asked back after season one. 

Newton's second season replacement was Gerard Christopher.

When Dean Cain, an actor of French Canadian-Irish-Welsh-Japanese descent, was cast as Superman / Clark Kent in the 1993-1997 series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," a sort-of 1990s "Melrose Place"-type spin on Metropolis melodrama, that pesky spit curl became a fickle follicle, here in one episode, gone in the next (pictured below).

On a 2010 episode of the aforementioned "Smallville," Teri Hatcher, who played Lois Lane on "Lois & Clark" (pictured above) portrayed Lois' mother, Ellen Lane.

With the chop-block style of animation in 1996's "Superman: The Animated Series," producer Bruce Timm wanted to tap into the spit-curled spirit of the 1940s Fleischer Studios "Superman" cartoons.

Tim Daly, best known for his roles as Joe Hackett on the sitcom "Wings" and as drug-addicted screenwriter J.T. Dolan on "The Sopranos," performed as Superman / Clark Kent, while the stellar supporting voice cast featured Dana Delaney (two-time Emmy Award winner for the Vietnam War series "China Beach")  as Lois Lane, Clancy Brown (a genre favorite for his role as the snarling, immortal Kurgan in "Highlander") as Lex Luthor, Michael Ironside (memorable as the amoral henchman Richter in "Total Recall" and as the neo-Nazi commander of the Roughnecks in "Starship Troopers") as supervillain Darkseid, George Dzundza (forever beloved as the steeltown bartender John Welsh in "The Deer Hunter") as Perry White, and venerable Big Apple thespian Joseph Bologna as Lieutenant Inspector Dan Turpin.

"Smallville," created by executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, became the longest running comic book-based series of all time, as it depicted Clark Kent's experiences and travails in the fictional Kansas town before he discovered his destiny as Superman over a ten-season run from 2001 to 2011. Not only was the spit curl verboten, but the series maintained a strict "no tights - no flight" rule during its broadcast history.

Denied his blue-and-red tights, his gift for flight, and most
importantly, his signature spit curl, Clark Kent (Tom Welling)
confronts an uncertain future in "Smallville."

By the way, Annette O'Toole, who played Clark Kent's teenaged Smallville romantic interest Lana Lang in "Superman III," with Christopher Reeve, portrayed Martha Kent, Clark's adoptive mother in the "Smallville" series, opposite "The Dukes of Hazzard's" John Schneider as Jonathan Kent.

A few years after Christopher Reeve's passing, producer-director Bryan Singer, best known at the time for "The Usual Suspects" and "X-Men," wanted to pay homage to 1978's "Superman," a film that personally inspired him. The result was 2006's "Superman Returns," which, more or less, serves as a direct sequel to Reeve's "Superman" and "Superman II," completely ignoring any events from "Superman III" and "Superman IV."

Brandon Routh, who had a recurring role on the daytime drama "One Life to Live" and appeared on the series "Gilmore Girls," "Cold Case," and "Will & Grace," was cast as Superman / Clark Kent. Not coincidentally, the actor had been repeatedly told that he resembled Christopher Reeve.

"Superman Returns" received generally positive reviews, with some mixed criticism of Brandon Routh's woodenness in the title role, a performance otherwise buoyed by an outstanding supporting cast that included Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, James Marsden as Lois' fiancé, Parker Posey as Luthor's moll, Frank Langella as Perry White, and Eva Marie Saint, in a positively touching turn as Superman's adoptive mother, Martha Kent. The film, with the permission of Marlon Brando's estate, even featured previously unused footage of Brando from 1978's "Superman" as Jor-El, enhanced with computer-generated imagery.

The picture was a box office hit, but not as much of a worldwide success as Warner Bros. had anticipated. An incredulous Bryan Singer blurted, "That movie made $400 million! I don't know what constitutes under-performing these days." Plans to reunite Brandon Routh and Kevin Spacey with director Singer in a sequel were summarily scrubbed.

It was eventually announced that a completely revamped reboot titled "Man of Steel" would be ready for a 2013 release, with Henry Cavill, an English BBC television actor who starred in the 2011 revisionist sword-and-sandal epic "Immortals," in the lead role, and Zack Snyder (best known as the director of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake and "300") directing.

"Man of Steel" was the first installment of the so-called DC Extended Universe, a media collaboration between Warner Bros. and DC Comics. Henry Cavill would go on to reprise his role in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League," both again directed by Zack Snyder.

At first glance, Henry Cavill, in ill-advised metallic blue tights,
appears sans spit curl in "Man of Steel."

But wait, as Clark Kent, in a switcheroo, Cavill flirts with an
errant tousle of an almost-kiss curl across his brow.

As a matter of fact, judging by these pictures from "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League," the spit curl is a now-you-see-it now-you-don't accessory for Henry Cavill.

Originally airing on CBS in 2015 before moving to The CW television network, "Supergirl" features former "Glee" costar Melissa Benoist in the title role as Superman's cousin. The show is supposedly set in the Arrowverse, the shared fictional universe of various CW series based on characters from DC comics, including Flash, The Flash, Vixen, and an ensemble of various superheroes on the anthology series "Legends of Tomorrow." One-time Superman, Brandon Routh costars on "Legends of Tomorrow" as The Atom" (pictured below).

In 2016, Tyler Hoechlin. who had roles in the series "Teen Wolf" and "7th Heaven," started making appearances on "Supergirl" as Superman / Clark Kent.

Do we detect a hint of a kiss curl on the brow of Tyler Hoechlin
in his role as Superman on "Supergirl" with Melissa Benoist?

Superman creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel never let on about the reason for the hero's spit curl. In an October 1959 Superman comic book (long after Shuster and Siegel's association with Superman had ended), it was revealed that like the man himself, Superman's hair is indestructible and can neither be cut nor can it grow in Earth's atmosphere. Only his X-ray vision is powerful enough to cut his hair. No mention was made, however, of the indestructible curl.

Oh, it should be noted that another noteworthy denizen of the comics page in newspapers, created by Ed Dodd in 1946 and continued today by James Allen, wildlife photographer and environmentalist Mark Trail, sports a dashing spit curl à la Superman (pictured below).

A Kiss (Curl) Is Still a Kiss (Curl)

Fashion-wise, the spit curl - er, kiss curl - keeps making comebacks, sometimes to the extreme, as displayed by '60s supermodel Veruschka...

...or, more subtly, in the 2010s, by actress Zoë Kravitz, daughter of singer Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet...

Parting Glance

It's comforting to know that even in the not-too-distant future ("next Sunday A.D."), the kiss curl will still be around. Just ask TV's Frank from "Mystery Science Theater 3000."